In a very rapidly occurring set of events, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar along with at least 18 party MLAs on Sunday joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government, marking a split in the NCP.
He took oath as the state deputy chief minister sharing the position with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis.
This is the third time since 2019 that Ajit Pawar has become the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra.
In 2019, Ajit Pawar took the oath as deputy chief minister, while Fadnavis took the oath as chief minister. That administration was succeeded by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, led by Uddhav Thackeray, with Ajit Pawar serving as deputy chief minister once more. The post was sent to him again on Sunday, and this time he will share it with Devendra Fadnavis.
Pawar’s decision comes only days after he publicly declared his wish to resign as the leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly.
This came after a number of NCP parliamentarians gathered earlier today at Ajit Pawar’s Mumbai home, where the party’s working president Supriya Sule and senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal were also present. Jayant Patil, the state party’s president, was not present during the meeting.
However, NCP president Sharad Pawar, who was in Pune, said he was unaware of the meeting, but added that Ajit Pawar, as leader of opposition (LoP) in the Maharashtra Assembly, can call a meeting of legislators.
Senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal and the party’s working president Supriya Sule were among the leaders present at the meeting held at Ajit Pawar’s official residence ‘Devgiri’, while state party president Jayant Patil was not present.
Reacting to the development, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and MP Sanjay Raut remarked that the BJP wanted to send the swearing-in NCP leaders to jail but has now made them ministers.
